Development of microsystem technologies for a monolithically integrated programmable Aperture Plates System used in mask less 45 nm e-beam lithography tools

Abstract:
The fundamental technical performance challenge for direct write lithography is throughput. Whereas optical lithography (248nm, 193nm, 157nm) and the successor EUV (13.5nm) is expected to achieve 60 wafers per hour and more, present day e-beam lithography is typically two to four orders of magnitude slower. The limited throughput of e-beam lithography is caused by two factors, being the serial nature of the e-beam exposure process, and the limited, useable writing current. To overcome this limitation is the goal of the European MEDEA+ project T409 and the joint project “Abbildungsmethodiken für nanoelektrische Bauelemente – ABBILD” supported by the German BMBF. The key is a massively parallel writing strategy with a few hundred thousand beams to meet the technical and economical requirements for fast prototyping and the fabrication of small and medium volume electronic devices with =45nm minimum feature size. The primary innovations of this project will be the development of a 200x reduction electron optical system equipped with an programmable aperture plate system (APS). A proof-of-concept tool will be built within the MEDEA+ project T409 by the key partners LEICA Microsystems Lithography GmbH (Jena), IMS Nanofabrication GmbH (Vienna) and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft.